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Averill Park holds public hearing on Smart Schools phase 4 to fund wireless access points
Summary
District presented a Smart Schools spending plan to use remaining Smart Schools funds (about $77,000) as the local match to purchase wireless access points through E-rate; the plan will return to the board for approval on Feb. 24 and then be submitted to the state.
Averill Park Central School District held a public hearing Thursday on a proposed fourth phase of its Smart Schools spending plan that would use remaining state Smart Schools funds to replace aging wireless access points and cover the district's local share of E-rate purchases.
Matt, a district staff member who presented the plan, said the district was originally awarded $2.1 million under the Smart Schools program and has completed three phases: a large network infrastructure upgrade around 2016, a security-system upgrade in 2018–19, and Chromebooks two years ago. About $77,000 remains in the district's Smart Schools allocation.
Under the proposed phase 4, the district would purchase roughly 99 wireless access points and use the remaining Smart Schools funds as the local share required by the federal E-rate program administered by the FCC. "We'll essentially be getting these access points at no additional cost to the district by maximizing those Smart Schools and E-rate funds," Matt said during the hearing.
Procedure and next steps: the district posted the preliminary plan in January and began a 30-day public review; the board is expected to vote on the plan at its Feb. 24 meeting, after which the district will submit the plan to the state for approval. Purchases would proceed only after state approval.
Ending: No board action was taken at the hearing; the plan will return to the board for a formal vote on Feb. 24.
